F350Platinum

Thanks! I'll mention again I'm not superstitious, but I'll attribute it to a lucky charm a good friend sent me at Christmas. 😀 I'm reservedly hopeful the streak will continue. 😎

Thanks! Looks like I'll have to revisit the dump. 😀 I can get to it, but have to be careful. It's on a steep incline close to a sharp 60-80 foot drop off. Wish I could get photos that show it, this place is full of ravines. I think the two rivers were much bigger a very long time ago, I read somewhere this area was a big runoff for glacial water. One misstep (or trip on a bottle 😀) and it's the sudden stop that hurts. Not sure if I wanna 'take that for the team" 🤪 May post the settings for my relic program soon, it would not be for everyone, and I'll make that abundantly clear. 🙂 Results have been fairly consistent, and I have not tweaked it for a while other than to change reactivity and audio volume. Guess I'm as slow and cautious as XP 😏

It was a small firecracker cannon from the early 1900s. 😀 Fits in your hand, has a small hole for the fuse to come out. Glad I still have it on my phone. The carriage is gone, it was probably iron. I'd test it but I think it's been in the ground for too long💥

I used to dig bottles with my mom in the 70s when I was a kid. It was lots of fun but we ended up with so many... 😀 I don't have anywhere to put them these days, I think my wife would get a bit ticked. I'll bet there are some good ones there. Maybe I'll look when I have less to do.

Days like today are rare in the winter, but I'm thrilled I get to take advantage of them. It was already t-shirt weather by the time I got out, it got into the 60s today, sunny and no wind. Perfect! I hit this field late last spring, got a lot of great buttons and a small brass cannon. There was a house here long ago, just a small two room shack probably inhabited by plantation "staff". I finally found the cellar hole for it. Searched around it a bit, but found nothing. On a hill nearby is a big iron patch, I think a barn burned there or the house was pushed there and burned. Today I wanted to see how the 13" did finding stuff in it. It did ok, but even Silver Slayer didn't produce anything, so I just hunted in my custom relic program that has been doing well for me. For a place I hit hard, I did ok. I had to park my truck at the entrance to this field, about 2 acres I don't have permission to but no one minded me parking there. They tell me the owner isn't worried about it, and the farmers are done for the year. Only got a handful of trash today, molten metal from the fire, copper nails, bullets, buck balls and the like. It really only is a handful 😏 Here's the take: A bit boss, 3 buttons - one overall, one silverwash and one small. 4 coins, 2 IHPs, 1888 and 1889, a 1963 memorial, and a silver 1950 Roosevelt dime! Got the dime heading back to my truck for a Coke. 😀 Got 3 pieces of what I think is an ancient fancy buckle, a parasol slide (thanks, JCR!) A large piece of cast brass that was attached to something and broke, a buckle fragment and an odd two headed bent copper nail. If anyone knows what that is I'd appreciate it! 😀 It's a curiosity for sure. I was glad to find anything at all here, and thrilled to yet again get a silver coin. Maybe this year I'll be luckier with that. Also found some old bottles, but left them there. There is a dump site on the edge of the ravine, the clear one says "Old Witch", apparently an ammonia brand. I don't think they are very valuable, and the ravine is dangerous, drops off almost 100 feet in some spots.

Clock is the only thing I've noticed, but what do I know. It does take 12+ pumps sometimes to get a good ground balance, but once done it really makes stuff jump out. 👍 I'm glad improvements are on the way, it will make a great detector even greater.

Nice looking ring man! Any day with silver is a good day. 👍 Ask any relic hunter 🤣

Thanks! And I'm "reading" it myself 🤣 I kinda did it as a test to see what I've learned so far. 🤔 Gary's a nice guy. 👍

Hey Gary, It appears to me from your posts you are very eager to instantly become a successful beach hunter, almost like you want to do it as a profession. I pray that is not the case. 🙂 If you're looking for the magic settings that will get you gold from the get-go you will be disappointed to know that no one can give you that information for a few reasons. The most important factors are Location, Tides, Time of year in some places as there may be no one at the beach during the cold months, Sanded in or out, and the existence/lack of conductive sand like black sand. There is a lot more than that. First, no one knows your general location. Every single strip of beach in the world is going to be different. Even going a hundred feet can change things. Sometimes 10 feet. Second, wind, waves and tides vary as well, if you show up at a beach at high tide your hunting strategy is different than at low tide, and different at all the variations time of day throws at you. If you live in a colder climate you can pretty much count on your local beach having nothing but junk due to being hunted out in the warmer months. Other more experienced detectorists will certainly leave junk for you! Sanded in or out means that a storm or wind conditions either moved the sand in or out, sanded in is difficult because most good targets will be deeper under the sand. When you are lucky enough to find a beach that has been eroded, what will be there is only the result of what others have not found. One good thing is that beaches are replenished yearly, relic sites are pretty much done when done. No ghost from 1790 is gonna drop another coin or ring for ya. 😏 I really, really hope you are coming at detecting as a hobby, not a profession. You may get lucky your first time out but more likely until you master your machine, learn the seasonal patterns, and become familiar with conditions of all types, you're pretty much going to come home with junk jewelry, bottle caps, tent stakes, can slaw, foil bottle seals, beer cans and pull tabs. If the best detectorists don't post their trash they make it look easy, but even they get that stuff, and sometimes that's all they get. Seriously. The best, most expensive detector in the world will not find any more than the cheapest one if you don't get your coil over something good. My first suggestion to you is to lower your expectations. Next, yes, ask questions here, but get some reading material regarding beach hunting either online or in print. You need to know where to look on a beach as much as you know what to look for. Keep in mind that the most experienced people here are not going to answer you if you don't ask questions that seem to be backed up by experience. Next, set your detector up in a default configuration, Beach 1 for dry sand, Beach 2 for wet and submerged. Tweaking settings at this early a stage is confusing. Luckily your 800 can be reset with a push of a button. If you don't system reset now and again you can really mess yourself up. Next, go to your beaches and dig it all. After a while you'll assimilate experience as to what is good to dig and what is not, and still you'll find you're wrong. 😀 As I've told you I didn't find gold for a long time. All the above is the reason, and more, but I relic hunt more than beach hunt. Rinse your stuff off at the end of the day, and repeat. 🙂 Take care of your equipment and it will take care of you. It has become painfully apparent to me after over 2 years of detecting that no one jumps in hot and finds really great stuff, because I didn't have high expectations, it's always been a blast. I also don't do it for income. Good luck as always. 🍀

Ford did make a vehicle in the 1930s called the Greyhound: Here's the hood ornament.

Karma. I'm not superstitious, but doing good gets good. 👍 So who helicoptered a redwood to the beach? 🤣 Looks huge. That would make a hell of a photo background with all the stuff you're digging lately... 🤔

Well Daniel you should win both the day and the Internet for that story. It's always nice to get a clue to a new spot to hunt, but finding that ring knocks it out of the park. 🏆 I'm sure you will find the right place for all 3 detectors. 👍

Thanks! For finding coins (and high ID trash) in a super trashy site, it sure is! Not so hot in the relic spots tho. 🤔 I've got a much better one for that IMO. 👍

Thanks NC. First silver of the year for me, but the Matron large cent gets a "hell yeah" from me. 😀 Didn't expect that one, shows that at least nobody knew where the old house was, this was about 100 yards from where I found that 1694 Twopence. I'm still trying to get a date range on it. 🙂 I'm thinking 1830s. The bottom hair was different. The IHPs were in pretty good shape!

Outstanding tale and photos, Cap'n! 👍 The best (and most harrowing) story I've read in a while. You are a relic hunter, without a cream puff location like I tend to get, I'm pretty sure that's what you will find. Looks good to me! There are "staff" houses on some of the permissions I hunt, about all I've ever found good was one 1925 Mercury dime. I think I gave it to the landowner. Usually all I get in those spots is junk silverware, old rusted teapots, sardine cans, beer cans, and butt cream tubes. 😀

😀 That's been the case for the most part. Chase got one in this farm last time, I didn't. The going there is very tough, machine gun iron and junk in the line behind the farmhouse. Silver Slayer works as a great coin shooter, others have posted proof of that. It made it easier to get coins in another one of my sites, even a melted unrecognizable 2/3ds of a silver dime. 🤣 It also hits on many of the usual suspects, beer can tops and steel tubing. Most of the big trash in the photo came from using it. If the detector hits in the 86-90 range it's a dig. These farmers have been very generous to me, I intend to reward them somehow. 🙂 This last one is a major coup, some very old stuff happened in that area. I now have permission to everything surrounding the center of activity!

Thanks Rick! I'm thinking of doing a new post about using Historic Aerials, the new liDar maps, and OnX Hunt together to get more out of a permission. Here there is a lot of history to be uncovered! You see the obvious but there are a lot of potential hidden spots. I think I did one a long time ago, but it bears refreshing. 😀 What we found was a very large debris field ranging from the 1600s to about 1920. When I traced it out in OnX Hunt, it turned out to be ~7 acres: Red pin is the original location I marked, the green pins are some of the finds, I didn't record them all. The blue pin marks the topographic location of the house after looking into it. The trapezoid is a function of OnX, they have a tool that measures area. It's really becoming the most valuable app I have when combined with the other Internet resources.

Looking forward to that Cap'n. 👍 The house showed up on the 1918 topo, and was gone by 1961, but the old road to it remains in OnX Hunt. Only half the road shows here due to map inconsistency. OnX has a tendency to be "off" a bit as well. I walked right past this spot, I was too close to the trees. Not sure why I did that: One thing I've learned hunting in farms is to look in the "turn zone", about 30-50 feet in from the edge of the field. Most farms are plowed or disced in the longest direction. Modern machinery turns easily, but back in the day it was sometimes difficult to turn the farm animals and plow, buttons pop off and holes in pockets do their thing. Happens on hills too. I found the large cent in this "zone". Also farmers would take a cloth out of their pocket to wipe the sweat, flinging stuff. Where there is afternoon shade along the edge you will often find coins, but the trees have to have been there at the time. There are some pin oaks in this farm that are about 3 feet in diameter but they don't provide shade. I've found old coins in the shady spots when they do! Another consideration is that hunters stand looking for rabbits and fowl in this area, so you find coins right up to the current era. You also find lots of shells of all calibers. 😀 It ends up being the most desirable place to look or avoid. 🤣

Used to play in my corporate days, 1 day a week in the afternoon we went golfing at a local course, ya sorta had to go. It was fun. I find a lot of golf balls on farms. If they get cracked by farm equipment I throw them out, but if not I'll put them by the house if there is one. 😀 Guess you could say I've got a lot... 🤣 Never mind. 🤐

Do be careful with iron volume in this setting, well all volume really. 👍 Shallow targets are a decibel surprise. The first time I used the BH-1 headphones (the detector automatically switches to this mode when using them) shallow iron gave me quite a jolt.

Gotta say I absolutely love full tones square audio. It's expressive as all get out, and indicates depth by amplitude. I tried pitch today for a while in my custom relic program, and it didn't take long for me to switch back. 😀 Probably the Equinox in me... 😎

Wow! Nice run strick, glad you got some gold. Looks like you're getting in stride with that detector! 👍 And ya always find something cool to take a photo of. 😎

Over the weekend I took another look at some old topographic maps of the old farm I've been hunting. I found I had mis-marked the position of a house that was on the old maps up to 1944, but is now gone. It's kind of a good thing I did because I wouldn't have found all that 1600s stuff I've posted lately. 😏 In addition, I wanted to try Silver Slayer behind the existing house, the house, barns and paddocks completely bisect the farm in one straight line. Everything is gone behind the house now, it's all open field but there is a ton of junk left behind. I invited Chase to come down and check the new spot out. I got there early, it was cold this morning but warmed to to 50, albeit windy most of the day. This farm is about 100 acres, and we can only park on one side. While I was waiting for Chase I searched this area, we already hit it pretty hard. All I got was a musket ball and this tiny button. too bad the glass insert is long gone. I have found one with the glass intact. This is the first button we've found in this farm! After a while Chase arrived, and we headed across this field, just for the heck of it when we crossed the building line I changed over to Silver Slayer, swung a few times and got a 96. Dug this pretty beat up 1947 D quarter! My first silver of the year. 🥳 We finally got to where I had marked the new house position, and sure enough the relics and coins started popping up. The first one I got was this silver plated spoon handle with a "T" on it, I'll have to find out if anyone knows the name of who lived here in the 1800s. It's possible no one does. It ended up being late 1800s Gorham silver plate, I later found the bowl with the marks on it. The anchor indicates the era, according to this chart, but it's a bit confusing. Here's the haul for the day, we went back to the house but didn't find anything great using silver Slayer, last time we were here Chase got a silver dime, but that was it. Got 3 pennies, two IHPs, a 1900 and an 1890, both in pretty good shape. Got a 1910 wheat too. Dug an interesting two piece button: A heart locket that had been separated but I found both halves, a lock slide and some patented item that looks like some kind of lantern mantle: The thing on the right was connected to the thing on the left, you're looking at the back of it with the stamped stuff in reverse. It was the only way I could read anything, so I flipped a photo of it: 1890s patent dates. Got a big buckle and a lock slide, and while walking near the trees I got a very loud 95, and dug this matron large cent. All I can make out is the bust, I don't know the year or type. The reverse has nothing. The trash was pretty heavy today, most of the big stuff dug using Silver Slayer, I want y'all to know it's great for finding coins, but not a "magic" program, you're going to dig junk. 😀 It was a lot of fun, and I had great company. While we were talking to the farmers I got another 550 acres of permission! What a day.

How long did you spend at the 19th hole? 🤣 Glad you were able to get out, RV. 👍

Thus far I've had no issues, anyone that has contacted me after joining was pleasant and respectful. Of course I'd turn them in in a New York minute if they weren't 😏 Best forum I've ever been on, I feel grateful to be here. This is the only metal detecting forum I'm on. 👍